Life in the Fast Lane - Donuts on the Couch: Growing Up on Evergreen Terrace S1E9

In “Life on the Fast Lane,” Homer’s spectacularly thoughtless birthday gift sends Marge to the bowling alley—and into the path of the charmingly persistent Jacques. Andrew and Thom discuss Marge’s growing dissatisfaction, Homer’s belated realization that his marriage may be in trouble, and the surprising emotional depth of an episode told largely from Marge’s perspective. Along the way, they explore forgotten birthdays, bowling shoes, marital communication, bottled-up feelings, and one of the most meaningful forks in the road of The Simpsons’ first season.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Grab a donut and have a seat on the couch. Welcome to Donuts on the Couch. Growing up on Evergreen Terrace. Rewatch Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

It's good to see you. Season one, episode nine is happening today. Of The Simpsons. Of The Simpsons. Um, and it's our ninth episode as well. Look at this.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

It is the ninth episode of the Donuts on the Couch, Growing Up on Evergreen Terrace. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Donuts on the Couch. Hopefully everyone's having a donut and tuning in and having a great day, wherever you are, whatever you're doing. This is this is an interesting episode.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

It is, it is. I hope some point we are bringing donuts ourselves. I don't have any in the house right now, but uh I'll I'll get some. Yeah, someday. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Uh an interesting episode. Uh really Marge's first, like it's about Marge episode. Um, and and that's a pretty heavy one, I think, for for that.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Yeah, yeah, it definitely um it definitely is hits hard a little bit. Um it hits home, you know, with you know, some personal experience and and and you know, just life these days seems to happen. Um, the thought of divorce and separation and everything is everywhere these days. It it affects most people.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, most most people, most kids. It's uh, you know, thinking back to like it my perception as a kid that like parents didn't want kids watching The Simpsons. There's something about it. And you know, thinking about like Barbara Bush's take on it on how it's like against American values or family values or whatever. Right. Like I definitely didn't get any of that as a kid, but as I'm sitting there watching this episode, uh Life in the Fast Lane, really thinking like, oh my God, like, yeah, I I can kind of see what they were getting at. I or you know, what the shock of it was at that time.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yeah, because you didn't see tip television like this, um, you know, especially geared towards kids. You know, it might have been in some of the adult shows that I, you know, still haven't watched, you know. Um, but uh yeah, you know, it's it's interesting. So we'll we'll take a look at it. I think right off the bat I yeah, I think right off the bat I was very disappointed. Yeah um, you know, because there's no intro. There's it's an abbreviated intro, yeah. It's an abbreviated intro, so there's no chop gag, there's no couch gag, um, no chance to take a look at that intro and see if we can find anything we've missed over the first eight episodes.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

I think it all has to do with like the runtime and how long the show goes, and so they that's one of the easy things to trim, but yeah, it's always disappointing as we're trying to launch thinking about those aspects of it, and we have got nothing to say. Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

And this episode has a you know, Albert Brooks um does some voicing in this episode, he's a guest star. And I liked um even in my younger years, but you know, still an adult or teen, I liked when the um when the guest stars played characters, you know. And nowadays it's just they play themselves, you know, they come in and they play themselves. I like it when they can kind of come in and create this cartoon character that's doing wild things, and we see that in this episode with Jacques.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Uh yeah, it is Jacques. Certainly an interesting character, uh initially a one-off character. He does come back in season like 35 uh eventually. I don't think I've seen that episode, but I read it.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

No, I didn't know that. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Um, but you know, as with all the episodes, we're sort of looking at uh how the episode starts, I think is uh an interesting um component to it. Sometimes it sort of sets it up, other times uh not really, but in this one, uh the first comments we hear are from Bart is just saying, whoops, whoops, whoops, as he as he's flipping over fat uh pancakes and they're like dropping on the ground or on the counter. Uh but then Lisa pipes in this is going to be the best breakfast, the best birthday breakfast mom ever had.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Yes, it's Marge's birthday. And yeah, that's see that you know, just seeing Bart knocking things over in the kitchen. Whoops, whoops, um, is great because that's how kids cook in the kitchen. They're just like, well, we're doing this. Uh-oh, that knocked over, who cares?

SPEAKER_02 4:08

You know, that fell, yeah. We're just we're gonna keep going. It's not a big deal. Uh it's a mess. Yeah, it is it is a lot of work when you're cooking with kids and like sort of chasing after them and like trying to keep it clean-ish. And you know, there's like one set of rules if we're like just cooking for ourselves, but like if we're cooking and like people are coming over, we have another set of rules and like we're gonna are more are careful more so about washing our hands and rewashing them.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Yeah, I wasn't uh I haven't been doing a ton of full cooking and stuff with sports and everything coming home. We we do fast, faster meals than we should and everything. We don't slow down to cook with my son um very often. But this weekend we were down in uh see my parents, and my um my son was making chicken with my mom, and he was doing the you know, in the wet, in the dry, in the pan, you know, that whole thing. And he was loving it. So I was like, Oh, all right. Um, so I gotta get him cooking a little bit more for the house.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

Yeah, he can start cooking for you. Yeah, yeah, perfect. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a helpful skill. Uh I I didn't I don't remember like helping out a lot uh in the kitchen as a kid, like never really having it much interest in it. Uh occasionally with like making cookies or something like that, I'd get to like stir a bowl. But other than that, I wasn't really brought into it. And my kids always ask, like, no matter what I'm making, they're like, oh, can I help? And like I'm always so overwhelmed by cookies dinner. Like it's it's such a tall task for me that then I'm just like, uh, yeah, let me see what I can get you to do to help, and like maybe I could put you down over here stirring something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

And then they never use that for the thing. You're just like, oh, I don't know. I don't know what that was. You're just stirring. Yeah. As a kid, I always had to I always had to put out the uh silverware for everybody. And my my brother had to put out the condiments. Um so depending on what we were having, he had an easy job. The silverware was out every time. Um I don't know if my sister had a job. Um, who knows? Maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe something a little bit easier.

SPEAKER_03 6:08

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

But yeah, so the kids, you know, they they're clearly they're working in the kitchen. They they seem to have some idea what they're doing because there is this large stack of pancakes, and they're just like, Should we make more?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

It's a very comical size stack of pancakes. Um and they've prepared gifts as well. Yes. Um, Bart Bart has uh purchased um a bottle of real French perfume, which was four dollars plus tax, and it's like this seems like it's like this giant jug of perfume. Um, and then Lisa has prepared a homemade card made out of macaroni.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Yes, and it's it's a beautiful portrait scene.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

It's a portrait of Marge. It's a you know, uh beautiful looking thing. Um uh so they're you know, and we're seeing there, we we know Lisa is very artistic, very articulate as well, and she's put some time in to make this beautiful card for her mom.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

And Mark now, he he just got uh something he could afford and something that's large. Uh he's sort of under the impression that there's something great about it. Uh I was trying to remember like the timeline, and it is later this season that he goes to France as an exchange student. I think we've still got a couple more episodes before we get there. Um, but you know, clearly there's something special about it being French perfume.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Yes, French perfume. So la la.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

So so they I mean, obviously there's like the sight gag of like licking the the beaters while it's still spinning. Right. And that that seemed like it was just something to like eat some time. Like there's just sort of a visual component to it.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Right, which is funny because we you know we already cut some time by chopping the intro. So again, right, yeah. So I don't know. Um yeah, so they they they bring the they bring the food upstairs and it's Marge's 34th birthday, and um, you know, they're saying happy birthday, and Homer wakes up and he's surprised it's been my birthday.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Like what's talking about how much he loves them. It's his birthday, and he loves birthdays.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Yeah, and then of course, what happens is um he has clearly forgotten that it's uh his wife's birthday, and um, you know, he says he's gonna go up for a jog. You get you hear him, you hear the doors shut and the car start, and he goes, off he goes.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

I I love that uh gag because it's again like basically a still screen of Mart and Bart and Lisa in the bedroom, and you just hear like the footsteps, and all of a sudden they pick up a pace and you hear the car door open and close, and then the car engines start and then the screech off. And and just like the amount of detail where they're all just sitting there. Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Just like the very very intentional and just giving the audio of what Homer's doing. And while they're just like, and they know they're like, he forgot. He forgot, didn't he? Marge is like, yep.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

So he speaks to the mall, gets there even before the mall is open. You see the old folks sort of walking around the mall, as they do, yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

He pre-parks in the no-parking zone, of course, because he has no time to think about rules. He needs to get something for Marge. Oh man. And the stores, the stores that once he's allowed into the mall, the stores that you that you see him walk by.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Yeah, the ones that stuck out to you.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yeah, I wrote them down because they were all just like hilarious. And not only the stores that he walks by, but his own internal uh auditory response to seeing each store. Um so there was the International House of Answering Machines, and he goes, No, which makes sense. Obviously, you're not gonna find some there. The jerky hut, and he says, too salty. Too salty, yes. You know, yeah, we don't we don't want to get a gift that's too salty for our birthday. Uh the ear piercery.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Um gives it some thought.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Yeah, he he thinks about it and then he goes, nah. Yeah, um the caramel corn warehouse, and of course he says too corny. And then and then there's girdles and such fancy lingerie, and he thinks in his mind he thinks, or he says out loud, too exciting. Oh, too exciting, right? Which, you know, you're thinking, like, why would you not do something exciting? But I think he's envisioning going home and rejoining the breakfast in bed with the family. So yeah, you can't get your wife something too exciting right in front of the kids. You know, and that that was uh that was a line that Albert Brooks improvised for you know, it gave what gave them, gave the writers while they were working on this episode, which was which was great, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Um too exciting. Too exciting. Uh I mean, overlaying this scene, uh Marge is back on the phone, right? And they're doing sort of like a back and forth, so she's on the phone with her sisters, and they're already lamenting how uh Homer always gets something for himself, right? Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

They know they know. Um and and another part of this too is they want to take her out for her birthday, and she mentions some restaurants that she wants to go to. And she even mentions one that they've been to before, which actually doesn't happen until the end of the season, which for that the babysitter episode was supposed to be the first episode, but again, whatever these things happen. But they just completely dismiss her. They're like, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

They want to go where they want to go.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

We we're gonna take you to the singing sirloin.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Um well, I thought that was such an interesting, like recurring theme in the story about like as we're thinking and learning about who Marge is as a person, like everyone is very dismissive of like what her wants and needs are.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Yes, absolutely. And you know, and her sisters are you know saying Homer will only do what he wants. Yeah, meanwhile, they're doing what they want. You know, it's just it's like, come on, people this is Marge's episode. We need to we need to treat Marge a little better here. But I think this shows her role right now in the family and how her life is going. And it's not not great.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

It's not. It's you know, it's uh uh it's a difficult phase in life when you got lots of little kids around, and um you people often do sort of lose their own sense of identity and who they are, right? It's not an uncommon thing to happen, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

And you know, just being seen by somebody is important, and that's you know, that definitely teases where we're going, where this episode is going.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Yes, because clearly she's not seen by uh anybody for certain components of of who she is.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yes, yes. So but uh yeah, so then Homer Homer lands on a oh the other thing, the other thing that they mention is they they mentioned the gifts that he's gotten for her before for himself. Yeah, and they mentioned two of them, yeah, and one of them just sent me out. I was like, what is going on here? What was it? I assume I assume not the tackle box. No, he's gotten a tackle box for her before, fishing, you know, whatever. That didn't, but then a Connie Chung calendar. Yes, Connie Chung, which nowadays, of course, Connie Chung is still alive. I think she's 79, she's married to Maury Povich, still black, still married after 40 years, yeah. Yep, um, but she's a calendar, and you're thinking to yourself, what type of calendar is this? Yes, is this something sensual? Is this something well?

SPEAKER_02 13:33

She was you know an important uh character in like the zeitgeist of the late 80s, early 90s as this news reporter. She was on like 2020 or one of those shows.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Right, yeah, I believe so. Yeah, but yeah, just and I wonder if I you know, not not for personal reasons, but I just wonder if this was actually a calendar that existed.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

I tried looking it up, I couldn't find one. I knew you I knew you would, I knew you would. I would have had it like behind me on the wall if it existed.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

I got it, I got a signed copy of the Connie Chung calendar.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

I'm sure somebody at some point made one, but I couldn't find one on a brief search. So anyway, if you have one, you know, feel free to uh call in. Hey, you know, um yeah. Uh so yeah, again, so uh March sort of defending Homer on his decisions, uh, and and again it sort of overlaps back to him looking at the bowling ball as he's doing his shopping. Right. Um yeah. Uh so uh they end up out to dinner, basically, is the next scene at the Singing Sirloin. Singing Sirloin, the home of ballads and salads. Ballads and salads, yes. Which is great. I had read something recently that um all of a lot of the other cartoon shows that came out subsequent to The Simpsons, like didn't even bother making up like store names and stuff because the Simpsons have done it so well in the background, like so often, right uh that it's just impossible to compete with. I mean, Bob's Burgers does it on like a part of their introduction, like for each episode where the store next door is sort of a new, like silly name store, but uh nobody else really does it quite as well where it's just it's in every episode, there's some sort of store name in the background, and it's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

They they really do, and I think it's one of those things that we probably missed a lot of when we were watching as as kids, and now we're seeing it, and it's just it is, it's genius. I I love it. I just you know, and I you know, I'll sit there and I'll watch bar rescue and you know, kitchen renovation shows and all these things, and you see all, you know, so just the the little subtitle of the of the uh the ballads and salads. I was like, What this is supposed to be a steak restaurant. What are we talking about? Ballads and salads, what is this? Um and so they go in, yeah, they go in there and and there's there's people singing at every table.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

At every table, yeah, for all sorts of different events, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Yeah, and one of them towards the end, one one of the singers at the end looked like a character I couldn't place her, but it looked like a kind of a recurring background character. Okay. Um if I didn't notice, it didn't write. Right, yeah. I took a I I took a screenshot of of her and I was just like, all right, I'm gonna watch because she's gonna appear again. I I just know it.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

Yeah, one of those familiar faces. But it is funny how they have like the different uh life events. There's the elderly couple, there's an expecting couple that's gonna have a baby, and then there's the funeral family at the end. Uh I love I love that they do that full spectrum. But this thing too where they they reveal that um Marge is turning 34.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Oh yes, yes, they do say it here. Yep. Um and and um I do like the like any restaurant, well now now kids' days now now nowadays kids will use you know their cell phones or whatever at the restaurant, and um but Bart and Lisa are bickering, you know, and they're trying to figure out whose present is best, all these things. And Lisa really nails it with, Well, if your perfume's so great, why isn't mom put it on? Yes. And Marge gives the classic, oh well, this is I want to save it for a special occasion. Yeah. Bart immediately retorts, what are you talking about? There's so much of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Acknowledging, yeah, yeah. That he bought like the gallon jar of the French perfume. Um, but she she sweet talks him into thinking she doesn't want to make it too special or whatever. And and he's still proud of his gift, you know. Of course, yes, the the finesse any mother um or father could do, you know, with their kids.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

As as we have to. But then uh Homer still hasn't given his his gift yet, so he calls over the the waiting team, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Yes, he does like a full snap and he's like, come sing, like we're going, we're ready. So he's at least prepared a little bit for this evening.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

A little bit, but as they get into that the happy birthday, it's happy birthday, Mrs. Homer Simpson, is what they sing. Uh so again, we're sort of losing uh or recognizing that people don't really see Marge fully as her own person. Um she's an extension of Homer, she's an extension of the kids. And that and that is a reality of parenting sometimes and in married life. Yeah, it's part of it.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

And that's something you don't see as much these days. It's a more of an older time thing. I mean, how many times has has your wife been referred to as your your your name? You know, yeah, yeah, that's just not something that we do anymore as a society. Uh that's true. Uh which is good. I think I think it's progress, yeah. Absolutely. Right, yes. Uh I'm gonna write you guys a letter, dear Mr. and Mrs. Andrew.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

Yeah, yeah. You know, like uh it's doctor and doctor Andrew, but yeah, that's fine.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

So so they they're singing the song, they hold the present over the cake, unfortunately, because it can't hold the bowling ball, which falls through onto the cake. Uh again, there's that's like a slight gag of like an eight-year-old. I found that to be funny. Um, but you know, there's so much of this episode that I missed out on as an eight-year-old that I did not understand what was right.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Well, and the and the bowling ball has the engraving right on right on it and says Homer.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Like Homer, what are we doing? Yeah, yeah. I've never bowled in my life as sort of a response. Uh, and and Homer tries to say, like, well, you know, if you don't want to use it, I I know someone who does.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Um, yeah, and she's like, you can't um oh, and his excuse is, well, I put my name on it so you know it's from me. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Uh there's some parts, there's some parts of it where he like kind of acknowledges that he's kind of a jerk in this. Um, you know, right. And he's he's becoming aware of it a little bit, but not completely, not completely willing to take out.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

I think it sort of comes when she says, No, I'm keeping it, and he's like disappointed.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Yeah, he well, now he lost out on his bowling ball.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Right. Well, which is which is interesting because with Bart and Lisa, they want, you know, they want to receive gratitude and know that their gift to their mother was great. And now Homer is more upset that he doesn't get to keep the bowling ball himself.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

That the gift is not immediately rejected, that he can keep it. Right. So so I think the implication going through the commercial is that like Homer gets sort of the silent treatment until they're in bed together, right? And Homer starts sort of talking and like saying, like, I okay, now it's your turn to talk. Um, but you know, and she says, like, I, you know, basically I'm disappointed. Uh he tries to argue, she points out the holes will drilled for your fingers. And he didn't want to ruin the surprise, was his response there.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Which which we also know was not a surprise. Yeah, you know, he he ran off this morning to the mall to get this.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

I forgot about that part.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Like, there's there's no real surprise here, and Marge knows it, the kids know it, everyone knows it. Um, so really just a swing and a miss by Homer on this entire this entire birthday debacle.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

Again, it it is sort of funny like the timeline of it, because like again, the expectation was he was gonna come back to bed, maybe, and like you know, in the beginning of the episode, the pancake breakfast be part of that. But uh no, the intention becomes that he's gonna give the gift at dinner. He had all day he could have been shopping for it.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Right, right. Um just I don't know. Um, but then so we we see her, she goes to Barney's Bowl Rama. Yeah, um, which I read a little bit about here um about Bart Barney's Bowl of Rama. I think this is the first time we see inside it. Um and I guess later it it's seen more in later seasons, and it's explained that Barney doesn't own the bowl of rama, his uncle does. Right. Um, because the writers felt that he couldn't own things, uh which is valid. Because right now it seems like how does Barney have this bowl of rama?

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Right, right. He's not responsible enough for that. We've we've already met Barney. From the very first episode, so we know who he is.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Yeah, so but that's interesting. But as of right now, we just think, oh, this is Barney's place. However, he owns it, who knows? Maybe just has a great GM. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

So Marge goes with the intention of like, I'm gonna use this ball, I'm gonna learn how to bowl. She just goes in, um, and she just like uh essentially says she's gonna bowl, and and then the the attendant sort of corrects her of like, you can't bowl without Elaine, and he points to the sign that says you can't bowl without Elaine. Which I think I uh as I acknowledge in a lot of these episodes, I think that's my favorite joke in the episode.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Uh which is which is which is true, and anyone that's bold knows you need a lane. Um Marge's response though, here is fantastic as well because she goes, Oh no, I'm just here out of spite. Which is she is, she doesn't really want to go bowling, she's just here to do it. Um and then you know, and then it's the whole well, you can't bowl without shoes either. So she gets all offended when asked her shoe size. Yeah, she's to share that, yeah. Right, right, of course. Um, and of course, we learn that her shoe size is 13 double A.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Yes, yes. And and they don't have the shoes to to match that, do they?

SPEAKER_01 23:20

No, they do not. So they have a a bizarre solution. And the the guy says, Closest I've got is a nine and a 15. It's like what and I I felt I felt weird because for the rest of the episode, while she's bowling, I'm like looking at her feet, I'm like, it's like one really big and one small. But no, the the animators are like, no, she's just got normal feet. It's a little too much detail.

unknown 23:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Um but that one that that's not a solution. That's not how this works.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Like I know, but I think that's why it's funny. Yes, true, true, very true. And her her first reaction is that the shoes are warm and moist, uh, which yeah, I I recall getting bowling shoes like that before. I think it's been a while since I've been bowling where I've had to get shoes. Um but it I think it was a popular thing at the time.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Uh uh, yeah. I actually I own a pair of bowling shoes. Um I don't know. I think they're back at my parents' house. I got them at MVP Sports, the now defunct MVP that we both worked at different locations, ironically. Um yeah, they were cool and they were cheap because they were probably been sitting there for years. So I grabbed them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Yes, with that great employee discount and access to your pants. The five-finger discount.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Just kidding, just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

Uh maybe, who knows? It's okay. So uh she get um they they pan over to uh a character who's bowling, and people are sort of like cheering him on, right? Yes, yes. Uh he's doing well, but then she tries bowling, and he's now watching her. Um and uh they sort of cross paths.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Right. And her um her bowling also is kind of a funny thing for kids to see because she's just like throwing it, and the bowl is literally bouncing down the lane, you know, which it doesn't happen to a bowling ball. I might bounce once, but that's about it. So she's clearly throwing it very hard. It's bouncing, it's hilarious. She's hitting one pin. Um and and then, yes, we're introduced to Jacques, um, the bowling pro. Uh and he's very what's the word, what are these? What do the kids say? Is he is he demure? Is that something the kids say? Is that what the kids would say now? I think it would say he's you know, he's very fancy and kind of in her face, a close talker, um and has immediate interest in Marge.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Yeah, that's right. Yes. Oh, or uh, you know, she he initially assumes that her name is Homer, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Right, yes, uh Homer. And you know, and she covers it up with a very uh she covers it up with an immediate kind of small lie, saying, Oh, no, that's my ball's name.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Yes, yes, that's how these things start. Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

That that is how these things maybe, you know, it could be the ball's name as well, but it's more of an omission of truth in who she is, and and and that she's in a marriage and she's truly just bowling out of spite because she's mad at Homer.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

I again, like that's part of her identity, um, being in that marriage, and and right now she's kind of mad at that part of her identity. Uh, and and maybe she doesn't want a part of it as part of what she's seeing.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

And and rightfully so.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

I mean, Homer screwed this whole thing up.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

I'm not here to sit and we're gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Everybody around her really has.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Yeah, so that you know, she's obviously feeling it and kind of wants to escape that world right now, and and Jacques is giving her that opportunity for sure.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

He offers his ball because she's got delicate fingers, implying that he also has delicate fingers, though, which is funny. Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Yes, and uh, you know, she's worried about this the cost. Um, you know, she he picks her up and for the first absolutely picks her up and moves her just because she keeps hitting the the pin on the left and just basically moves her over, and then she does her exact same throw and gets a strike. And you know, which immediate dividends, any any coach wants to see that. Try this. Oh, home run. Great, I told you.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

You know it that is, yeah. So he can then uh you know argue that he could charge her for lessons and give her a steep discount.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Yes, uh $25 for a lesson, but forty dollar value. $40 value.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

I do like how important these like dollar things are to Jock. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

So um, you know, and it kind of ends. Uh oh, and he makes a comment too. Um in in switching the bowling ball, he makes this comment that that I wrote down that people have foolish attachments to heavy and clumsy things, such as this Homer of yours. Yes, yes. So it it kind of leads to this like you feel like Jacques knows what this whole something about is going on. And but he's not he's not deterred. He wants to pursue Marge and teach her how to bowl and spend time with her.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Yes, maybe maybe more than all those things. Yes, yes. So uh Homer's back at the house with the kids and they're eating pizza together. Um Homer's left in charge, right? And so they got this pizza, there's no plates on the table, and they're just all eating it.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Um also things are going swimmingly, they're going just fine.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Yeah, but they're eating, you know.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

But Homer acknowledges uh does time always drag like this as they're sitting there eating?

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Yes, yes. He's he's definitely it's that old adage of like the the man doesn't really do any of these types of things in the household. And Homer is in a position now where he has to do it and he has to, and he's just kind of like, oh my god, like what let's eat, guys. Come on.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

What is all this?

SPEAKER_01 29:21

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 29:22

So you know, and sort of it's an interesting like transition thinking again about like 1990 is the time point of that, and these these like really structured roles in the house, so typical in like earlier sitcoms to that time of like the the dad does this, the mom does these tasks. Um, and and that became you know often the expectation within houses outside of TV. That's sort of the structure of it.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

Right. I mean, that's how I remember growing up and you know, and having dinner, and you know, we would all help my mom like put put it together, but my dad was getting home from work and dinner would kind of be ready, and that's kind of how it worked. Uh, not not anymore. You know, I get home with my son and I've I gotta cook dinner, and I mean it's just the two of us, so obviously it's a little different than a full household, but you know, and sometimes we just grab and go, and sometimes we go and sit and eat somewhere and at a restaurant more often than I ever did as a kid. Uh but we just we're very flexible in dinner and dinner time.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Yeah, yeah. It's not doesn't have the same rigid rules that you sort of expected it was supposed to have growing up.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

Right. And and Homer is definitely doing this kind of for the first time. Um, and it leads to at the end of the night, he's exhausted. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

You know, going through the list of the things that he has to do and eat. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

He checks that uh clean up, you know, and he's gonna put the baby to bed. So all three of them are singing Maggie to sleep, which I thought was cute. Very sweet moment, yeah. But he does a great job, I think.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

Um I think he does he survives, you know.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

And he's asleep, and Marge is home late. She's been bowling for quite quite a long evening.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

Apparently, yes.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

And which is interesting because you know, most bowling alleys charge charge the lane per hour. So they do, yeah. Well, I guess if he got home at 5 36, she went out and six, you know, maybe she started bowling around 6 37 and bowled until 9-9 30, you know.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

Yeah, that's fair.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Not crazy.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

Yeah, especially if a lesson's going on, it takes a while.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Um, and then she so she comes in and wakes him up. Yeah. Homer, I'm going I'm going bowling again tomorrow. And she, you know, he's kind of like, uh, okay. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:31

Well, yeah, I mean, he's I think he's starting to see the writing on the wall a little bit of like, hmm, uh, she's she's clearly unhappy with me. Um, but you know, he doesn't know what to do with it quite yet. And it takes a little while before he gets there. But so it gets to the even, I think just the next night that they're in the lesson, and uh Marge gets a thoughtful gift from Jock of a bowling glove with her name on it that cost $17.50.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

Right. Yeah. He's he he does. He mentions money a lot in this. Um even in the first time we're seeing him, he's collecting money from somebody's bowling against.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Um that's very much the focus of his uh his his life and uh how he makes things go. So uh there's this montage of like bowling things going on with this like sensual French music in the background. It's really funny because it's like not overtly sexual, but like something like quasi-sensual about it if you combine those two elements together.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Yeah, you really, you know, watching it and you're like, ooh, what's going on here? Why are they, you know, they're they're you know, they're warming their hands together over the you know, they're putting the strapping their bowling gloves on together and and other random little things that you're it's basically a montage of showing you what's happening here, you know.

SPEAKER_02 32:48

Yes, yes, this is these are two people that are spending close time together, and finding uh sort of different types of intimacies there. Uh they dip an onion ring in ketchup at one point. I I don't know how you felt about that, but I I I don't approve of that.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

I was not a big fan of that. Um no, no, not a big fan. The the onion ring spout out of was for onion ring. Four onion ring, and that was by Albert Brooks, and he lost his French accent when he said it. It was totally unplanned when he said it. But just you know, are you hungry? Four onion ring. Just a funny moment, you know. Just you're like, oh my gosh, this is this guy. Uh but he's taking the initiative, he's ordering food.

SPEAKER_02 33:33

He's making he's making advances, right? And it's getting a little bit more clear. And Marge does sort of point out at this at this time that you know I'm a married woman. Um but then Jock sort of proposes, well, you know, what's what's wrong with meeting out for brunch?

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Right. And then he goes into this big long, again, which I think was more Brooks improvising, or like what brunch is it's not breakfast, it's not lunch, it's you know, all these like you get a little bit of cantaloupe. It's a really dead. You don't get everything you need, but it's a good meal. Which made you know made me want to go out to brunch.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Very quickly went out for brunch after that, yes. Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

So uh just kind of funny. I I like I appreciated that the humor in that. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

The improvisation of it too, uh I think is is pretty clever.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Uh yeah, it's I mean it's brilliant. It's this is um and they uh I think in in an interview back in 2004, I believe. I have it written down here, hold on. Uh Matt Groening said that this was one of his favorite episodes. Oh, interesting. That he, you know, and it was probably working with Albert Brooks and you know, and doing all that. And then there was another one, I forget which one he mentioned as the other favorite that he liked. Um, I forget, but um oh Bart the Daredevil. He liked Bart the Daredevil as well, which I think is next season. Second season, I believe. That's the one I think where he takes the skateboard over the cliff. Yes, yes. Yeah, those were yeah, it was in a 2000 entertainment weekly article.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

Um only so many episodes had been made by that point. Right. Well, I mean 10 years, so yeah, yeah. So so they get back to you know, Marge coming back home again, quietly climbing to bed. You know, it seems like Homer wants to say something, but but still doesn't. Um Marge is then making really special lunches for the kids. Um, you know, keeps throwing like treats in it. There's like toys in their lunches now and like baguettes sticking out. It's just also saying goodbye to the kids.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

This was a tough, tough little scene to see. Um because it's her her the guilt that she has. Um and you know, being someone that's gone through a divorce, there is a lot of guilt just in getting divorced anyway. Because, you know, if if you do get divorced, you're gonna see your kids a lot less. It's just a that's just a reality of the the fact. Um now, hopefully you, you, you know, are in a good workable divorce, which I'm in, um you get to see your kids on certain times. But I I mean I know people that don't go to sporting events for their kids when it's not their weekend, and it's like you got you have to do that. Like, what are you doing? Um but high hostilities and everything make it difficult. Um but so this this this scene hurt because I was like, oh, she is just wrecked with guilt and she thinks her marriage is gonna end, and she's saying a weird goodbye, go to school for these kids. And Bart obviously doesn't realize it or get it. He's got more more candy in his lunchbox. Um and but Lisa gets it, and you can tell she's like, oh, this is hard. Uh mom's racked with guilt because her marriage is failing. Like she's she's able to see it. Uh what a wide-grown girl. She's in second grade.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

Yes. So it starts talking about like how they're in like different stages of how they're dealing with this. And it's sort of an allusion to the uh the Kubler-Ross model of uh grief, which is I I think with her model is five stages, they talk about eight stages, you hear people talk about seven stages, and with all these different things that can happen in the in the like classic seven stages, it's the shock, denial, anger, bargaining, guilt, depression, and acceptance. And they don't happen in a linear way. They can sort of go back and forth, they can happen, you know, surprise out of nowhere. All of a sudden you're sort of in one of these stages. Uh, but it is, you know, a part of like the mourning process and like you know, going through a loss and being able to process that. A lot of things have to happen inside our minds to be able to deal with that. So, so again, Lisa sort of sees like, okay, we're going through something, something's happening, we're at different stages with it. Um, and and maybe the whole family is in different stages with it right now.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

Yeah, and um I do I do like how the you know, because she says she's um she's in the fear stage and Bart's in the denial stage, and I like how Bart disagrees with her so much that yeah, no, I'm not, no, I'm not, no, I'm not, you know, and then she actively sees Bart switch from fear to anger. And then she's like, I I've stayed corrected. Which I thought was great, you know, and obviously something like that you don't catch when you're when you're a kid, but yeah, I looked at that and I was like, Oh, that that's clever. Well done.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

Yes, that was yeah, beautifully uh tied together as they're looking what everybody in the family is now going through as this is happening. It's not just Marge and her story, it's the whole family. Um they they make it to brunch.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Um I was reading about this this scene uh online, and apparently the writers had an idea for Shorties to be this like restaurant that would be in the town a lot, and just constantly in the background, you would see just a chef's hat moving across the screen, implying that there was a guy behind the counter wearing it anyway. They ended up scrapping it, but I thought that would have been hilarious if that was happening. It would have been probably a little distracting, but who cares?

SPEAKER_02 39:19

You'd be looking for it.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

And then I'm sure there would be a shorty reveal at some point where you would actually see it or him or her, who knows. But uh I was gonna I laughed when I read that. I was like, that would that would have been really funny. I didn't I didn't know that. I love that. Picturing a hat go by.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

Uh he he jocks offers uh mimosa, and you know, March sort of takes exception to him using a word like that. She didn't know what it was. I you know, again, sort of saying that, you know, don't call me that I'm a married woman.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Right. Yeah. Was she thinking mistress or you know, some sort of you know, something along that line.

SPEAKER_02 39:59

But this leads to a uh character introduction, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

Yes, a character introduction. We get to meet Helen Lovejoy for the first time.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

She introduces herself as the gossipy wife of the minister.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

Self-realization. She knows she knows who she is and she's proud of it. Uh and she's very much, you know, like, oh, Marge, you're a married woman sitting here on brunch with this man. Um and you can tell Jacques has been in this situation before because he's like, I'm giving her a bowling lesson. And he literally grabs things on the table. He's like, Look at this. This is the seven.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

Good covering. Um give him credit for that. But after after she leaves, he comments that let's hope something runs over her. Um and they sort of giggle together. Um but then he offers that he wants he wants to meet somewhere else. He wants to meet at his apartment, the fiesta terrace.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

Yes, at the fiesta terrace, uh, which is what the party party street? Something like that, yeah. Um yes, he he wants to he wants to have a little bit more intimate time with Marge. Um and she immediately faints. She faints, yes. She faints, you know. This is uh this is kind of, you know, you you think that this is kind of an overstepping of everything. Yes. You know, brunch was one thing, but let's you know, but that's how that's how these things work. We'll do this, we'll do this, we'll do this. It definitely is escalating. And we get shot into this montage of the dream she's having of the dream she's having, of going back to his apartment, seeing all the bowling trophies. Yeah, bowling, they're dance, they're dancing, and the floor that they're dancing on turns into the you know, the the little arrows on the bowling lane, you know. It's and it's this whole magical time with with Jacques.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

All right. I I love how she like comments about the bowling trophies in the dream, and he corrects her that they are for love making.

unknown 41:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

But but the funny thing is they also have like bowling ornaments on them.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

They do, and I guess one of them, I had to slow it down and stop. One of them does have a heart on it. Oh, okay. Yes. Good catch. Right. I mean, this is Marge's dream. It can be whatever, whatever she wants. Um, you know, and eventually she comes to. Yeah, shorty. Back in the last one.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

Back in shorties, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

And any any sort of dream sequence in a show is, you know, you think, okay, that was a dream. We are back to reality. We're back to real life, and this is what's, you know, we're gonna go back to where we're supposed to be, basically. But they the writers just they flipped it and they said, nope. Like, so Marge, first thing out of Marge's mouth is, how about Thursday? So she sees his dream as she's in. She wants to see him and she wants to spend time with him, you know, at his apartment.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

Which she's intrigued, yeah. She wants to find out more. Again, there's uh this part of her that uh has been long dormant, and uh she's wants it to be a little bit more awake right now, and uh but at what cost, right? She's still gonna figure that out.

SPEAKER_01 43:08

This is a dangerous, dangerous zone to enter. And um and I and we've already known she was already already saying goodbye to her children, so she's already been feeling and dealing with the weight of this. She still went to this brunch, and now she's accepting a further invitation, you know.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

And I it's and Homer's feeling it, right? He doesn't actually know what's going on, but he definitely feels like the distance, the growing distance. Uh Bart offers to play catch with him. Maggie and Lisa are just sitting there watching as they're playing catch. But you know, Bart throws the ball, and Homer's just sort of sitting there and it cracks him on the head.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Right. And we've seen we've seen Homer and Bart play catch before, and you had mentioned that in that scenario, Homer was the pitcher and Bart was the catcher, which is an interesting flip of the dynamic. Here it flips back. Bart is narrating that he's the pitcher, he's gonna throw it, you know, and it hits Homer in the head. Right. Doesn't even say ouch. So Homer immediately corrects himself, kind of, oh, ouch. Which is kind of like a depressive thing. You know. Aren't you supposed to like it? I I envision it as aren't you supposed to be happy it's your birthday, or or aren't you supposed to be happy for this? And but if you're depressed, it's kind of like, oh, you're right, I'll smile.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of a force.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Kind of a force. Oh, you're right. I should have said ouch. Uh ouch. Ouch. You know.

SPEAKER_02 44:29

Yeah. So yeah, in depression, even sometimes the painful stuff, you just don't feel it the same way. There's distance from it. Absolutely. Bart's getting concerned here, and he sort of like tries to feed back some advice that he got from Homer once upon a time. That uh, you know, if if you I forget exactly how he words I don't know if you have it written down.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

I didn't write it down, but it but essentially it was, you know, if if if life is feeling bad, don't talk about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just keep your full mouth shut. Right. Keep your full mouth shut. Don't talk about it. And Homer does this, but it obviously only makes things worse. You know, he just, you know, he can't can't handle um he can't handle this. And he finally does speak up towards the end of the episode.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

The folly in it, because you know, um Marge is making uh lunches in in the kitchen and sort of the next scene, uh, and he he's just telling her how great her sandwiches are, and she makes them so much better than everybody else, and he doesn't get jelly on his fingers because of it. Um and and he sort of ends that with like, I don't believe in keeping feelings bottled up, and she's not she's still not really responding to him.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

Yeah, and she and he ends the he ends that conversation with goodbye, my wife, and he walks out, you know, and it's you know, she's already said goodbye to the kids, he's now saying goodbye to her. Um, you know, it's it's a tough, tough little spot here.

SPEAKER_02 45:53

You feel the tension, uh, again, as a 40-something that you didn't feel as an eight-year-old.

SPEAKER_01 45:59

Yeah, and you know, I I've lived some of those moments and you know, tense moments and feelings of you know, life is gonna change really, really drastically here. And and you and you see it, you see it on screen, which is good. I and I think it goes to the genius of this whole first season. This this whole first season, we have episodes that are meaningful and you know, it's not all quick gags. Um, you know, and we've talked about how we haven't watched a lot of the last like 10 years of The Simpsons, maybe even a little further back. But I'm I'm interested to see how long this goes until we get to some episodes. Uh it'll be fun. Well, maybe not fun story, but it'll it'll be interesting to see when we get to a point where we're like, the last four episodes have been weird. Like, what's going on? Yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 46:43

There's nothing thematic happening anymore.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

Right, right. So this, you know, but this is this is good stuff. Uh it is it's it's it's been great.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

And so Marge leaves. I I imagine, sorry, yeah, just sticking on that for a second. I imagine that there's like a different pressure as the writers are sort of piecing these together at this stage because you know, they're writing these all more or less around the same time or like concurrently, they're writing all of these different episodes, and they're doing so much world building that like there's not this pressure to just like keep keep up the pace and keep it going. They're able to tell these stories, and it's an unfortunate thing that that sort of does get lost over time uh as the show evolves.

SPEAKER_01 47:21

But it absolutely does. But we'll and we'll explore it as we go.

SPEAKER_02 47:24

So exactly, exactly. So so flashing back to Jacques getting ready, uh, you know, uh in his bathroom, which uh I don't know. I didn't really pick up on what the bottles and the stickers and stuff on his mirror were.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

I don't know if you I think the interesting part about that was just that the sheer amount of it. You think of a single guy, you know, you're in the bathroom or whatever, and there's a tube of toothpaste, there's some shaving cream, a razor, and a toothbrush. Right, right. And that's it. You know, like what are we doing here? Uh there might be some cologne or whatever, but he had bottles and sprays and all these things, and you're just yeah. And then he and and then what he says is is so was so bizarre to me. Um, he says, You're really gonna strike out tonight. I think that's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:09

I like that because I think that's supposed to be like sort of a lost language, um something lost in translation to that. Uh between between like the bowling idea of like a strike is great, but in in American culture at this time, probably baseball was bigger than bowling, uh, and striking out had a different meaning, right?

SPEAKER_01 48:28

Right. And it was also foreshadowing because he certainly is.

SPEAKER_02 48:31

He certainly does. Certainly going to strike out tonight. But he he's getting excited. But then we get another character introduction, which I believe uh the time we get to see Lenny, yes.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

Yes, first gets time we get to see Lenny at the uh at the power plant.

SPEAKER_02 48:44

I I would argue that Lenny's probably my favorite character on The Simpsons. Uh like when I was younger, I was like really into Ralph. I thought it was really funny how they used him. But as an adult, uh, especially, you know, again, thinking like the first like 10 seasons, I think Lenny uh is is just one of the most, you know, uh funny characters and just how they can use him in so many different ways.

SPEAKER_01 49:06

We um I had a during summer of college, I had a wiffle ball league that was a competitive wiffle ball league that we we played in. And and my team, I was a team captain, and my team was called Mo's Tavern. Um, this was you know 2001, 2002, 2003, whenever it was. And and we our jerseys had names on the back, and mine was Lenny. They were Lenny. Right. We had we had Lenny, we had Carl, we had Mo, we had Homer, and I think we had a fifth, but I don't, it must have been Barney. It had to be Barney, right? Yeah. Um I I don't remember who the fifth was, um, going back to my my team. But yeah, I've always loved Lenny. I don't know. He's just he's just great. He's a great character. And this is the first time we get to see him, which is cool.

SPEAKER_02 49:49

And even just like his little even here, he just has like a single line of Ain't you hungry, Homer?

unknown 49:54

Right.

SPEAKER_02 49:54

Yeah, he's his friend, you know, he's just a good friend at work. Notices he's not eating when he normally eats, but you know, Homer acknowledges that he's got the sandwich and that Marge made it, and it might be all that he has left of her.

SPEAKER_01 50:07

Yeah, yeah. So and that's tough.

SPEAKER_02 50:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

That's you know.

SPEAKER_02 50:12

Yeah, oh man, yeah. Yeah, you know, he's trying to hold on. He doesn't know again, he doesn't really know all the ins and outs of it. And I think they they get into this a little bit later uh in in some of the like flashback episodes where like he doesn't actually know uh anything about this.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

Yeah, but you know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 50:34

He feels the distance that's happening. So yeah, yeah. So um it goes into a montage of of Marge now driving, and she's driving by uh various things that are sort of making her remorseful of where she's headed, right?

SPEAKER_01 50:46

Right, she's seeing the couple walking together, the costume store with the matching skeleton costumes.

SPEAKER_02 50:52

The progression of it, I think, is kind of what the funny part the wedding chapel, then the couple pushing the baby carriage, then people sitting at a picnic table, I think, drinking coffee together, an old couple walking, then the cemetery with the two headstones, and then the skeleton costumes.

SPEAKER_01 51:09

And that's what that's what we that's what you sign up for when you get married, right? That's what people want, and that's where you're supposed to be. So she's feeling this guilt of oh my goodness, I'm going in the wrong direction. And then so she then she gets to a fork in the road, and there's a sign that literally says the power plant is this way where Omer is working, and Fiesta Terrace is this. She stops and she's trying to figure out which way to go.

unknown 51:37

Right.

SPEAKER_01 51:38

Yeah, and I mean that sign you know is is physically and visually there for us, but it's probably metaphorical. Like I can go this way to do what I think, or I can go see my husband, you know. So and she backs up, goes down, backs up again, and then we kind of are like, uh oh, which way is she going? Yeah. And it flashes to her walking into the power plant.

SPEAKER_02 52:02

Yeah, that's right. And uh, you know, the theme from uh an officer and a gentleman is playing. I I I haven't actually seen that movie, but I I'm you know aware of how the movie ends and sort of the what they're showing and sort of copying that here. But I I like had all intentions that I was gonna try to go back and watch that movie before we did this episode, but uh I I did not get a chance to.

SPEAKER_01 52:23

I thought about it as well, and I just um I didn't either. Um, but yeah, you know, you know, there's only so many time there's only so many hours in a day. So yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

That one, you know, I'm aware of the reference, I can sort of hold it in my mind. But anyway, so that you know the um the the different uh workers at the power plant are started cheering Homer on, way to go homer. Uh hey, what should I tell the boss? Uh and this is a joke that went well over my head as an eight-year-old.

SPEAKER_01 52:54

Yes, just to you know, tell him I'm leaving with the woman I love and going to the backseat of my car with the woman I love, and I won't be back for 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 53:04

10 minutes. Oh my god. So how romantic. My goodness. The parking lot of a power plant in broad daylight. Um, but again, it's within the confines of their marriage. So uh I also found it interesting that they uh they don't flash back to Jacques at all, they don't like show any disappointment of him. He the last we see of him is this like moment of anticipation. He's excited.

SPEAKER_01 53:31

Yeah, and that's kind of where we where we leave Jacques. He's gonna be kind of left at the altar there, left left at his apartment. And there's no but so and back then there he wouldn't be able to text her.

unknown 53:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 53:46

He'd have to call, you know, but is he gonna call the house? You know.

SPEAKER_02 53:50

Um probably just go back to the bowling alley and wait for her to come back.

SPEAKER_01 53:54

But uh Yeah, yeah, I mean, I guess. But yeah, it it um we're so much more available to other people these days with um, you know, with with cell phones and everything. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

They talk about how like so many sitcoms just like wouldn't have worked in the era of of uh cell phones, like like Seinfeld, like all of the episodes were just about like people not being able to find each other and these miscommunications uh that are irresolved now.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

It's something that is is very interesting too, because we I mean we used to do it as kids, you know, we'd get dropped off somewhere and then we'd either call collect home or just know that my mom was going to be in a certain place at a certain time.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

I used to be there at 10 30. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

Yeah, and I have I would have to be there. Or you know, that doesn't happen anymore. I I never don't make plans, you know, you know.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

I know, I know. Oh man, I resisted so long getting a cell phone. I didn't get one until after college. Um and I basically had to because I was commuting into the city and like you know, being able to like tell them if I was running late because the train was running behind or stuff, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 54:58

I had one senior year, but it was like one of those Nokia or something that I left in the room. I think it ended up getting stolen when our apartment got broken into. So hey, we survived. Uh never saw that phone again.

SPEAKER_02 55:10

But yeah, I mean we lost a couple computers, a uh gaming system, a camera in that in that incident. Yeah, that was rough.

SPEAKER_01 55:19

That was a tough, tough, tough senior year. But hey, we we made it. That's right. Now we can joke about it. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 55:28

Oh man, yeah, yeah, no, but uh they are uh such a part of our lives. Like even now, like I've got mine sort of sitting here. It's upside down. I'm trying to sort of like you know be really purposeful in in being focused on what we're doing here, talking to each other. Uh, but it's hard. Like the even just like the urge to flip it over is there, like it's hard to resist. Yeah, what do you do about that as a dad, Tom?

SPEAKER_01 55:50

Oh, I nothing. I just let it take me. I just I've given up. It owns it's right here. I've got it right here. Um no, I I don't know. I try to, you know, my son doesn't have a cell phone yet, but he has an iPad where he can text me at his mom's house. She can't really text him when he's here. But I you know, she could hop on the Xbox and chat or call or whatever. So, but it's coming. It's coming. He's middle school now. It's it's coming. And I don't know. Uh I'm I'm addicted to it too, but right.

SPEAKER_02 56:25

It's a hard thing. Like I try my best to like keep it in the other room when I can. I forget, you know, it sort of just crawls back onto my hand and like attaches to my face again. Like I don't I don't know. It's an ongoing issue. I I think that uh as a society, it's definitely like a struggle. You see, you know, how people's attention is so focused into it now. And even in like brain scans and things like that, we're able to see like our capacity for attention has gone down so far because of these things.

SPEAKER_01 56:51

Yeah, it's it's certainly uh certainly an issue, but I mean, I don't know. And here we are creating content so that people can watch on the on these screens and phones. Please subscribe, but uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:05

I don't know. My hope is that we give people a space where they could sort of, you know, if it's running in the background, they can sort of have it have it going, but it's not necessarily like they need to be clicking and scrolling and looking at it that way, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 57:18

Yeah. No, I think I think we're perfect for that remote work when you're at home doing work, but want something to listen to. Uh hope you enjoy and hope you kind of relive The Simpsons and um, you know, when you don't have time to actually sit down and watch.

SPEAKER_02 57:32

So that's right. That's right. So so yeah, that was episode nine. Um, you know, uh Life in the Fast Lane. Really uh really interesting first dive into Marge as a as a person, as an individual, and I think that's important that we become aware of that. Uh that you know, each one of these characters are individuals, we're individuals. Uh, but we play different roles to different people. You know, I play a different role to you than I play to my kids. Uh so I'm I'm a little different when I'm with you. I I also think that's gonna be something somewhat interesting for like people to listen to this because uh a lot of people that know me think of me as somebody that like doesn't actually say that much. Um so then to to talk for an hour with you uh about something like The Simpsons, I think will be sort of a surprise for some people.

SPEAKER_01 58:13

I think you I think you're your people in your life are just gonna wonder why you're uh why you're filming this session with this crazy patient of yours. Why are you publishing this? Does this man know that you're talking about Simpsons? You're just helping him through his life?

SPEAKER_02 58:32

Well, that's part of friendship though, right? Hey, of course, of course. And that's the different role that we play. I'm not your therapist, but I am your friend.

SPEAKER_01 58:38

So of course, yeah. And I'm the guy that I'm I'm your Lenny. Have you eaten today, Andy? Are you ready to you know?

SPEAKER_02 58:44

I appreciate that, Lenny. So so this episode I think was a little bit more well received than maybe the last one.

SPEAKER_01 58:52

Uh 7.4 out of 10 on IMDB, which is on the lower end of the first season. But um but uh pretty good. I thought it was a great episode. Uh a little bit more in depth than I think what people expect out of a Simpsons episode, but I think it was pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 59:07

Yeah, I mean it's definitely uh again, the perspective is different. More about Marge. And and again, even thinking about the time of like late 80s, early 90s to to get into like a female perspective, and that like the mom of the family can also have like urges and feelings. Like uh, I think that was new, and I think that sort of uh frames how people received it.

SPEAKER_01 59:27

Yeah, I mean she's she's a human too, she's part of the family, she's an important part of the of The Simpsons world. And you know, it was it was good to get a a first really look at her and where she fits in in this world. So and and and their life, you know, Homer's life and her life and all these things.

SPEAKER_02 59:45

So Well, I think it's funny that now the transition of the next episode, episode 10, is Homer's night out. Um pretty funny transition point, which I never realized and now they were really Yeah, it's you know, this is gonna be it's kinda gonna almost be the reverse.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:02

Um, I think it's a little bit more aloof, a little bit more goofy than than Marge's situation, but you know, we're we're gonna be looking at their marriage again next week.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:12

So different lens, yes. Well, yeah, thank you for uh Tom, thank you for having time with me here and uh everybody else that's of course thank you for tuning in to Donuts on the Couch.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:23

Growing up on Evergreen Terrace. This was episode nine, and we'll see you guys next week for episode ten. All right, bye.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:30

Bye guys. Thanks for listening to Donuts on the Couch, growing up on Evergreen Terrace, yet another Simpsons Rewatch podcast.